


Monster

by Tangledfangirl



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Bullying, Gen, Post-Canon, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23599897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangledfangirl/pseuds/Tangledfangirl
Summary: When Catalina continues getting bullied because of her power, she realizes that there's one person who will understand what it's like to hide in your feelings.Or, in other words, bonding time for two of my favorite girls :D
Relationships: Cassandra/Red|Catalina
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	Monster

“Look! There she is!” 

Catalina tried to believe that the words weren’t about her, but that became impossible when Jason and his gang ran up to her, sneers on their faces. She winced, remembering the bruises she’d had after her last interaction with the gang. Although she’d tried to convince Lance and Kiera that they were simply because of an unfortunate fall, they both knew that she was much too graceful for that. It was only a matter of time before someone found out about the bullying that had been going on for months. Catalina knew that she should just tell Lance, but the last thing she wanted was to worry him. 

“Do you want a bone,  _ werewolf? _ ” Jason mocked as he walked up to her, easily six inches taller than her. “Or we could give you the scraps from dinner.” 

“That’ll work,” one of his cronies, Keith, added. “Dogs aren’t picky.” 

“Cut it out,” Catalina commanded, but her voice came out a lot quieter than she’d intended. Of course, she could turn into her werewolf form and have all of them on their knees begging for mercy, but that would only reiterate their point. 

“Aww, is she scared?” Jason asked with faux concern, easily overtaken by his devious grin. “Poor Catalina. Are you going to cry?” 

“I doubt it,” Randall chimed in, closing in on her right side. “A  _ monster  _ like her is probably not even capable of crying.” 

“Monster,” Jason sneered. “That’s all you are, Catalina. Just a monster.” 

“Monster! Monster! Monster!” the rest of the gang began chanting, giving Catalina an opportunity to use her prior knowledge on sneaking around to escape the mob. They chased after her for just a few seconds before she managed to lose them, running into an alleyway. Now, she let the built-up tears fall, out of view of anyone who would use them against her. A few months ago, when they’d defeated Zhan Tiri, Catalina’s ability to turn into a werewolf had been one of her most prized possessions. But now, since the local bully group had found out about it, she wished she’d never had it in the first place. 

Ten minutes ago, Catalina had been on a shopping trip to get necessary materials for the project she was working on with Kiera and Varian. But now, all of the motivation had been drained out of her, and she sat down on a discarded cardboard box, burying her head in her hands. 

She needed someone to talk to, someone who would understand what she was going through. But who? Kiera wouldn’t understand. Varian might, since she’d heard stories about his moments of villainy, but he was in the middle of an assignment from the princess and wouldn’t want to be interrupted. She loved Lance with all of her heart, but he wasn’t the best at difficult conversations. 

Rapunzel, Eugene, even Pascal… Catalina ticked off all the options on her fingers and discarded every one. All the people she knew were so good at sharing everything that was on their mind. There wasn’t really anybody who understood what it was like to stuff feelings deep down inside and be horrified at the results when they overflow and get out of control. For Catalina, they’d turned her into a monster. No, there wasn’t anybody who would get it. Unless… 

Looking up at the nearest tree, Catalina saw a wanted poster, still up from a few months ago. Although the person whose face was painted on the poster had seen the error of their ways and wasn’t a threat to Corona anymore, there had been a lot of posters and some had been forgotten. Catalina’s face brightened through her tears. Now here was someone who would understand. She was only just getting to know Rapunzel’s best friend, but she already knew that the former criminal would understand, since the two of them had been through a similar process of manipulation. 

Before she could talk herself out of it, Catalina got up and ran toward the castle. 

Cassandra was in her room when Catalina found her. The older girl was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a book open. She seemed to be reading the book and transferring notes into a notebook in her hand. When the door swung open, Cassandra’s head jerked up. She smiled and put a bookmark in her book. 

“Oh, hi, Catalina.” 

“What book are you reading?” Catalina hesitantly asked. Although she was becoming friends with Cass, she knew that Cassandra didn’t really like talking about deep subjects, like feelings. That was something they both had to work on. So, she knew it was the best option to ease her way into the conversation. 

Cassandra shrugged and picked up the book. “It’s history, about Lord Demanitus and Zhan Tiri. I want to learn as much as I can about Zhan Tiri for the book that I’m writing.” She held up the notebook with her other hand. “Writing a book is a lot more work than I thought it would be.” Cassandra set down the books and looked back at Catalina, concern entering her face when she saw her tear-stained eyes. “Hey, are you okay?” 

The younger girl hesitated, fingering her leaf necklace in one hand. “I just… I need someone to talk to, and you’re the only person who I think will understand.” 

“Oh-okay,” Cassandra stuttered, feeling honored at getting to be the one who this girl turned to when she needed someone. Not Rapunzel, not Lance, but  _ her.  _ The same girl who had attacked and kidnapped her friends months ago, and Catalina was trusting her? It was enough to flatter anyone, even someone like Cass who generally didn’t like flattery. 

Catalina paused at the door, an expression that Cass couldn’t quite make out in her eyes. It seemed to be a mixture of uncertainty and… was that fear? She patted the bed next to her and tried to offer the warmest smile she could. “It’s okay. I mean, you have every right to be afraid of me. Sometimes, I’m even afraid of myself. But I promise, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you, in fact, I want to help you. Which is something I really need to work on.” 

With a small smile, Catalina trotted over to the bed and hopped up, sitting cross-legged across from Cass. She had thought this part would be easy, the part where she shared everything that was going on, but when that moment actually arrived, the words died on her tongue. She felt her words tangle up inside her brain, wanting to say so many things at the same time. Luckily, Cassandra knew what that was like, and patiently waited for the little girl to figure out how to say everything.

“Do you-” Catalina began, hesitating even as the words came out of her mouth. “Do you ever hear people call you… a monster?” 

Cassandra’s face went even paler than usual and Catalina immediately regretted starting off that way. Although Cass hadn’t heard the name called to her face like Catalina had, she’d seen the looks people gave her. She’d noticed the way older women whispered in tiny huddles when she passed them on the streets, the way men fingered their swords or crossbows, the way mothers held their children a bit closer when she came near. She didn’t blame them; after all, she had been a serious threat to the kingdom a few months ago. But even though Cass had seen the error of her ways and made an effort to repair all of the damage she’d caused, the people could never forget what she’d done. And Cass knew that she deserved that, and that she could never regain their trust again. 

_ I’ve never heard it,  _ Cassandra thought,  _ Except from myself.  _

“Yes,” she finally answered, her voice in little more than a whisper. 

“I’m sorry if this is-” Catalina began, but Cass cut her off. 

“No, it’s okay,” she assured the smaller girl. “It hurts, sure, but I guess I need someone to talk to as well. We- we have a lot in common, Catalina, and I know we can understand each other. You can tell me what’s going on.” 

Catalina took a deep breath and let the whole story spill out. She told Cass every little detail, not even leaving out the parts that she’d avoided to think about, when Jason and his gang threw punches at her before she could escape. Cassandra’s gaze never left her face, and her eyebrows furrowed more and more with concern as she went on through her story. 

When she finally finished, Catalina didn’t even realize that she’d been crying again until Cass was gently wiping the tears from her face with a gloved hand. The touch felt unnatural for both of them, but safe and warm at the same time. A bit unsure on how to comfort a crying girl that wasn’t Rapunzel, Cassandra put one arm around Catalina’s shoulders, giving her a gentle squeeze. The little girl’s body stiffened at first, but just a few seconds later, she gave in and leaned into the older girl’s side, her body shaking. 

“Catalina, that’s…” Cass began, not quite knowing what to say. “I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell anyone about this before?” 

“I didn’t want to worry them,” she sniffled. “Besides, it… I don’t… I don’t like to talk about it.” 

Cass nodded. “I get it,” she answered, “I guess we both have trouble talking about our feelings, huh?” 

“Yeah,” Catalina replied, rubbing her nose with her sleeve. 

“How did you-” Cass began to ask, suddenly curious. “What I mean is, were you born a werewolf? How does that even happen?” 

“I wasn’t born one,” she began. Now, this was a subject Catalina knew how to talk about. “When Kiera and I decided to move back to Corona, I- I didn’t want to. But she wouldn’t listen to me. So I… I kept it all in. Then I ran into a sort of… wolf spirit. It said that it could help me be heard, that it could give me a chance to be the one that calls the shots. All I had to do was let it. So I did.” 

The story sounded strangely familiar to Cassandra.

_ “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Cassandra,” the Enchanted Girl told her with concern as Cass fell to the floor and cried at seeing her former self being abandoned by her own mother. “Sometimes the most difficult truths can be the most painful to remember.”  _

_ Cass took a deep, shuddering breath, letting the words wash over her.  _

_ “You’ve always felt outshined by Rapunzel, haven’t you? And you always will! Unless-”  _

_ Clenching her fists, Cassandra looked up, feeling an intense wave of rage wash over her. This was all Rapunzel’s fault. She’d taken everything from Cassandra. Her mother, her dreams, even her destiny.  _

_ And now it was Cassandra’s turn to strike back.  _

_ “Unless-” she began, a plan forming in her mind. “I take something away from her.”  _

_ “Exactly,” the Enchanted Girl began, a sweet smile on her face. “And what is Rapunzel going to take once she reaches the Dark Kingdom?”  _

_ “The Moonstone,” Cassandra answered. “But what does that have to do with me?”  _

_ “You will take the Moonstone before she can and achieve your destiny!”  _

_ “But- I-” Cassandra stammered. “That would be betraying Rapunzel. I-I can’t do that.”  _

_ “Think about it, Cassandra,” the girl continued, and Cassandra couldn’t help but feel like she could believe everything she said. “The Moonstone holds incredible power. If you were to bond with it, all of the power would be yours. No one would ever underestimate you again. You wouldn’t be pushed to the side or abandoned. For once, Rapunzel wouldn’t be the one to decide anything. You would.  _

_ “It’s your destiny, Cassandra.”  _

The memory washed through Cass’ head like a bad dream and she shook her head to get rid of it. “Catalina,” she whispered, and the younger girl broke their contact to look at her. 

“What?” she asked, giving her a small smile. 

Shaking her head, Cass pressed Catalina’s head back on her shoulder. “We have so much in common,” she repeated. “That’s almost the exact same thing that happened to me.” 

“With Zhan Tiri?” Catalina asked. Three months ago, Cass would have flinched at the name, but that whole ordeal was ancient history now. 

“Yeah,” Cass answered, giving a small chuckle. “She told me that the only way for me to ever be noticed was if I overshadowed Rapunzel. And, like a fool, I believed her.” 

“I believed the wolf spirit before I knew what it was,” Catalina added on. “I pushed my sister away because I wanted to be the one who called the shots. Being the wolf lets me do that, but now I know how to use it for good.” 

“I pushed my sister away, too,” Cass added. “At least you don’t have attempted regicide under your belt.” 

“Because I let people help me,” Catalina replied with a slight smirk. “At least, eventually.” 

Cass laughed. “Touché,” she answered. “I guess I could learn a thing or two from you.” 

“I’ll give you lessons!” Catalina offered, giggling. “Let’s see, where do you want to start?” 

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Cass began. “Maybe something like,  _ How not to let Zhan Tiri manipulate you  _ or  _ How to actually have friends  _ or even  _ How to not betray everyone you love _ ? That would work, for starters.” 

“How did she… how did she convince you to do other stuff after you took the Moonstone?” the younger girl asked, suddenly shy again. “Like crashing Eugene’s party, and kidnapping Varian, you know, that kind of stuff. That’s what I don’t get.”

“I guess once I was under her control, she knew it and knew that I would do whatever she asked me to. I thought she was the only one who was really on my side, but, ironically, she was actually the only one not on my side.” Cass had been wondering this herself since the whole ordeal was over, and finally realized the truth as it came out of her mouth. 

“That makes sense,” Catalina replied. All of a sudden, she gasped, looking at the clock hanging on Cassandra’s bedroom wall. “It’s 12:05!” she exclaimed. “I was supposed to be at Varian’s house with the supplies five minutes ago!” 

Cassandra jumped up from her bed, pulling her new little friend along with her. “Well, let’s go, then!” 

Looking at her with a hopeful glance, Catalina smiled. “You’re coming with me?” 

“I don’t think these bullies would dare to mess with you if the same girl who attacked the kingdom months ago was with you,” Cass pointed out. “Besides, I may not have my black rock powers anymore -thank goodness- but I could still show them a thing or two. You want me to beat those jerks up?” 

“Um, Cass…” Catalina began sheepishly. “If any passersby saw you beating up a kid… it wouldn’t necessarily be good for your reputation, after, well, you know, everything.” 

“Right,” Cassandra replied, not at all offended. “Well, I think they’ll stay away from you if they know I’m on your side.” She leaned down so she was the girl’s height, looking straight into her eyes. “Will you promise me one thing, though?” 

“What?” 

“That you’ll tell Lance and Kiera what’s going on,” Cass gently commanded. “At least those two. Everyone else is up to you. It never helps to stuff everything inside. I should know. Promise?” 

Catalina gave her a single, determined nod. “Promise.” 

“Good.” The older girl stood up and began the walk out the door. “Now let’s go.”

And when Cassandra felt a small, warm hand slip into her longer, cooler one, for once, she didn’t pull away. 

She may have even enjoyed it. 


End file.
